Support Ted’s Work

•
Ted Rall

Legacies, or Some Day, They’re Really Going to Feel Like Fools
Posted by Mikhaela Reid

Marriage equality: yet another arena in which the Democrats are missing a spine.

40 years ago yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving vs. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. The Loving decision invalidated the “Racial Integrity Act” that allowed Virginia cops to bust into the bedroom of Richard and Mildred Loving, arrest them for “illegal cohabitation” and sentence them to a year in jail.

Can you imagine the leading Democratic candidates getting up at a campaign stop today and hemming and hawing out the following nonsense?

I believe in full equality of benefits, nothing left out…From my perspective there is a greater likelihood of us getting to that point in interracial civil unions or domestic partnerships and that is my very considered assessment.

or

It’s a jump for me to get to interracial marriage. I haven’t yet got across that bridge.

or how about

I would not support the Defense of Racial Integrity Act today, if there were a vote today. But the part I agree with is the states should not be required to recognize interracial marriages from other states.

Those are all paraphrases of actual statements on gay marriage from Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Obama has similar views. (found via Pam’s House Blend, an excellent LGBT issues blog that regularly checks in on all the candidate’s positions on marriage equality).

Some folks say the Democrats have no choice but to tone down their support of gay rights to appeal to religious voters or values voters. But is that the kind of visionary progressive leadership we want to promote?

Decades from now, the people who were too afraid to support full equality for gay Americans are going to look like spineless sheep, and rightly so. I can see the history books now “The Democrats bravely passed non-binding resolutions, courageously voted to fund an illicit war they claimed to oppose, did nothing of any note to remove an Attorney General with a serious torture fetish and tentatively supported domestic partnership benefits while opposing real marriage equality.” Now that’s a legacy we can all be proud of! As Susan Ryan-Vollmar wrote in her Bay Windows editorial last week (regarding a possible constitutional ban on gay marriage in Massachusetts):

Twenty years from now, when their time in office has long since ended, those lawmakers who back the anti-gay amendment June 14 will still be asked about their vote by their grandchildren, their neighbors and even reporters writing anniversary pieces. Trying to explain that they supported marriage equality but believed the civil marriage rights of same-sex couples should be decided by popular vote will sound even more disingenuous several decades from now than it does today.

Note: I think Ted’s turned commenting off while he’s away–if you want to comment, I’ve cross-posted this at The Boiling Point Blog.

•
Ted Rall

Rush Limbaugh for Idiots
posted by TheDon
Sorry, I think I left an “is” out of the post title…

Today, while I was drinking my lunch driving to lunch, I was channel-surfing in my Pruis when I landed on Limbaugh’s daily assault on the senses. I stayed there because he was talking about my car and saying some incredible things. They were so bizzare and stupid that I assumed it was a parody, but it appears to be something he believes. He bases a lot of his story on “research” done by something called CNW Marketing Research.
The most bizzare claim is the cost per mile of driving a Prius vs driving a Hummer. Even if you accept the retarded unusual premise of their analysis (the Prius has a lifespan of 100,000 miles while the Hummer has 300,000 in it – just go with it for now), this seems too stupid for even the most credible mouth-breather:

The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles — the expected lifespan of the Hybrid. The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles.

Ummmm…. really? You count on people not being able to do that math? $325,000 to operate the Prius over its lifespan? $585,000 for the Hummer? I guess so, since Limbaugh joyously says this:

The upshot of the story is that a Toyota Prius, a hybrid, whatever, it costs three times as much for one-third the driving time than a Hummer.

Let me see… 325 = 3*585… carry the one… I really don’t get the appeal of this show, but then I did pass math class. And maybe I’m missing the entire point. He also went to a lot of trouble to tell the story of how environmentally destructive the production of the batteries is, read the refutation of that claim on the air, and then completely ignored the refutation. It’s not a science show, is it?
UPDATE
After some more research on the claims made by CNW, they are supposedly calculating the total energy cost of the vehicle from conception to the end of its street life. This number includes tires and dent repair, but does NOT include gasoline costs, meaning the numbers are even more absurd than they appear initially. Somehow, a vehicle which used over $300,000 worth of energy during the manufacturing process was sold to me for $24,000, and I save a bunch of money on gas! Twofer! Thank you Toyota!

•
Ted Rall
The bomb that dare not speak its name
posted by TheDon
The internets are abuzz with the Pentagon’s attempt in 1994 to get $7.5million to develop a “gay bomb”. The bomb would turn enemy soldiers gay, and they would be so attracted to each other that they would stop fighting and start, well, you know…
I’m not saying that this is not an amusingly stupid idea, and it is based on several faulty assumptions (that you can catch “the gay”, that gays won’t fight, that you could contain the effects of the bomb, etc), but lets just ponder that a while.

Stupid ideas based on faulty assumptions. It doesn’t even sound remotely new or newsworthy.

Shock and Awe.
Star Wars.
Missle Shields.
When they stand up, we’ll stand down.
Slam dunk.
Don’t ask, don’t tell.
If we leave early they will follow us home.
They hate us for our liberties (so let’s give up our liberties!).
Data mining.
Total Information Awareness.
Gitmo.
Torture.
Surge.
Rumsfeld. (ok, that was gratuitous)

Face it – Gay Bomb Technology may be the smartest thing these guys have tried in a while, and one of the safest. And imagine the testing. “Am I starting to look cute to you? A little? You want this, don’t you? Don’t you?”

•
Ted Rall

Central Asia Update

Assuming the power doesn’t go down again, this comes to you from Khorog, capital of the Gordo-Badakshan Autonomous Oblast in eastern Tajikistan. My thanks to the guest bloggers who have been and are keeping this blog a living, breathing entity during my time of hunger and sunburn (oh, yeah, and wheezing at high altitudes).

I’m up here on one Very Big Assignment that I can’t post about it, as well as three smaller ones that are nevertheless very significant. One is a feature story about Central Asia’s “Sword of Damocles,” Lake Sarez. Read more about it in “Silk Road to Ruin,” but now that I’ve been there I’m even more passionate about the need for the West to pull together the $2 billion that can save 5 million people from a horrible death.

I’ll also be checking in on the current status of the Uyghur insurgency against the Chinese government, as well as popping into Islamabad as General Pervez Musharraf’s military government teeters on the brink of oblivion. Oh, and anything else that I find that’s worth writing about as well.

Funny, when you leave the US you feel like you’re missing out all sorts of interesting news. Then you check the news online and find that, as usual, the Demcrats are pussying out. The Gonzales no-confidence vote was a lame idea, and one that became evem worse after they failed to pull it off. For God’s sake, impeach the torturing motherfucker already.

•
Ted Rall

DC: Meet Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Ruben Bolling, Mikhaela Reid & other Cartoonists With Attitude July 7!
Posted by Mikhaela Reid

More info here. Ted will be moderating the slideshow/panel, and signing copies of his latest books, Silk Road to Ruin and American Gone Wild.

Also, if you happen to be in New York tomorrow, come see a free political cartoon slideshow with Cartoonists With Attitude Mikhaela Reid (that’s me!) & Masheka Wood. You won’t be sorry!:

Tue Jun 12, 7pm | NYC: Mikhaela Reid & Masheka Wood Cartoon Slideshow & Book Launch Bash @ Bluestockings, 172 Allen St., NYC.

•
Ted Rall

This guy’s going to hell
posted by TheDon
BluegrassRoots went to the Creation Museum and wrote a very good report on it. Includes:

Early in the museum, the visitor is given advice on the proper mind frame to have for your visit: “Don’t think, just listen and believe”.

I’m pretty sure the RNC could sue them for copyright infringement…

•
Ted Rall

I think Tucker just called Republicans stupid
posted by TheDon

On Tucker Weekend (I know, but NOTHING else is on…), the discussion is the Immigration Bill, and McCain’s position on it. After falsely claiming that that was the one topic during the wankathondebate where McCain stood alone (torture being the more important one), they mentioned that McCain calls the status quo “silent amnesty”. It was called “an excellent phrase” that could neutralize the issue for him. It is, of course, a stupid phrase, and presents a false choice (just like Turdblossom’s boy does) between their way and chaos. If you think the current undocumented workers have some kind of amnesty going, I have a few neighborhoods I’d like to show you, and a few articles I’d like you to read.
In response, the incredibly deep thinker, Tucker Carlson, said, “That’s, I think you make, I think that you make a good point, I mean that is an interesting argument, the silent ma.. amnesty argument. Don’t you think it might be a little too sophisticated for a presidential campaign?”
He might have a point, but they don’t usually call their base stupid to their faces. And dear lord! This is considered a sophisticated argument, never mind too sophisticated? They really do count on winning by soundbites.

•
Ted Rall

The Beach Gestapo
posted by Susan Stark

I love the beach. I love the water. I love the sound of the waves and the wind caressing me.

I’ve loved this ever since I was a little girl in Michigan, swimming in the great, fresh-water lakes that surround the state. And it’s the same here in New York, the same beautiful sand, water, waves, and wind. As an adult I swim in the salt-water of the Atlantic.

But one thing I and other New Yorkers could do without are the obsessive and harassing park personnel and policies, otherwise known as the Beach Gestapo.

Once, on Staten Island, I walked from the train to the beach, got in the water, and was promptly told by a passing personnel that I must, MUST be in a designated swimming area with lifeguards. I had to walk a half a mile north to this area, only to see that the area was only several yards long, and was crammed with noisy people and their kids. I like my beach experience quiet, so I walked as far away from the crowd as possible, while still in range of the lifeguards. I should not have had to do all of that, because a simple sign saying “NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY, SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK” would have sufficed in most places. Not here, apparently.

The Beach Gestapo also goes around at 6pm sharp to tell everyone to get out of the water because the beach is closing. Shocking. I never heard of that practice until I moved here.

There are very few personnel at Coney Island Beach in Brooklyn telling folks to leave the water “immediately, or else”, but the last time I was there, there were signs on the bathroom doors telling people that they cannot use the bathroom to change clothes. This would’ve made sense if the city provided a place to change clothes, but there wasn’t a building in sight where you could do that. I changed clothes in the bathroom anyway, and so did everyone else. A nice bit of psychological warfare, if you ask me.

And finally, there are those who have been ticketed for leaving their stuff on the beach while they go into the water. Doing something like that is completely normal to the rest of us, but apparently not to the city. (Gee, too bad they didn’t have a maid to watch it for them, right Bloomberg?)

I have a word for the Beach Gestapo and everyone else reading this. The wealthy go to Fire Island and the Hamptons to swim. They do not swim in the city. I am a resident of New York City, and my hard-earned tax dollars pay for these beaches, and I will use them to my heart’s content. And so will every other New York City resident. You are not going to force us out with your personnel and your mind-games. We are not going to back down. Give it up.

•
Ted Rall

TGIF! Drinks are on me!
posted by TheDon
It’s 90 degrees in Atlanta today, so our drink is a summer classic. Refreshing and wonderful.
Caipirinha
cut a lime into eighths and put it into the bottom of a glass
pour 1 Tablespoon sugar on the limes
crush the sugar into the limes with a pestle or wooden spoon, completely juicing them and dissolving the sugar
pour in 1/2 cup rum (Brazilian rum – cachaca preferred)
stir
put a handfull of ice on top and stir again
cheers!

•
Ted Rall

I will never go to an Indiana County Fair
posted by TheDon
Not with this kind of stuff going on:

BAGHDAD (AP) – In a dawn strike Friday, unidentified gunmen attacked the house
of the police chief in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, killing his wife, two brothers and 11 guards, Diyala provincial police reported.The attackers also abducted two sons and a daughter of police chief Col. Ali Dilayan al-Jorani, police said. The chief, head of central Baqouba’s Balda police station, wasn’t at home at the time, they said.

Can you even imagine the brutality of this attack? ELEVEN guards killed, along with the wife and two brothers! Yikes. I’m guessing this will make them hate us for our freedoms even more.

keyboard_arrow_up
css.php